M0UAW's Blog

First thing I should say, this is my 'design' and I offer no guarantee that it will work for you, be careful if you build one, do your own testing to be certain it's not going to blow up your laptop and or radio, cause a rift in space time and the instant destruction of the entire universe as we know it. OK, guff out of the way, the Opto Isolated CI-V Interface I mentioned earlier, And the schematic! It's rough, hand drawn and there have been a couple of changes to component values, mainly because I found a document that suggests the CI-V interface port on the radio shouldn't have to sink more than 2.5mA, so one resistor has been changed (the 680R on pin 2 of the right hand side opto is now 2K) and another removed completely (the pull up on pin 5 of the left hand side opto) to comply with that. If I short the CI-V line with my ammeter, I get this: 1.6 milliamps, I'm comfortable with that. Currently (yeah yeah) it works reliably as a serial loop...

The parts used so far and the prices: CM108 USB Sound card,       £2.32 CH340G USB-Serial Bridge  £0.74 1:1 Audio transformers, 2 of  £0.29 each. PC817 Optocoupler                £0.02 Yes, 2 whole pennies each, this part controls TX. 3.5mm Jack Plug                    £0.49 For the CI-V port on the radio USB Hub                                £2.30 Not as expensive as I thought it was 13 Pin DIN Plug                     £3.79 The most expensive bit, the Icom Accessory socket plug. Proto board                             £0.30 Absolute bargain, great quality and through hole plated too. Cables were from the junk box and the resistor (there is one)...

I'm sat here with a pile of bits and a spaghetti mess of wires which is the partially developed radio interface. This mess, above, is a working USB-CI-V, PTT and sound card interface. Which connects to: The audio isolator and PTT Isolator board All connected to this, my IC-718. So the big question, does it work? I'd say that's a yes. Heard 5051 kilometres away ! Colour me impressed but that's with 5 Watts into a random length of wire, roughly 15 metres in length and tuned by the AT-130.

Amateur radio, a hobby for experimentation, investigation and learning. Me?  I'm poor so I build or buy things that have function, they're usually not that pretty but they get the job done. I've got a nice, simple, HF radio, the Icom 718, it's not got a lot of bells and whistles and a lot of 'serious' operators will (and have) sneer at it, preferring something with more buttons, knobs and switches than a NASA control room and enough processing power to find the meaning of life (42) but my little Icom is capable of 100 Watts across all the HF bands, works as a general coverage receiver  and was cheap enough for me to buy. I like it. I wanted to try digital modes, WSPR, FT8 etc. and to do that I need a computer interface. I went looking to buy one. Ouch. They're ridiculously expensive for what I thought must only be a few bubble gum components. I started researching to see why, what the secret sauce was that meant they were uncomfortable for my...

Flushed with success and a shiny new Foundation M6 callsign we immediately began the Intermediate course, more practical work, a Chinese Pixie Kit bought, built and tested, sending Morse across a desk to another candidate is surprisingly good fun, possibly more fun than running lots of power into a well installed antenna system! Suffice it to say, the course went well and I took the Intermediate test, along with another two candidates, on Sunday, 12th November 2017 Again preliminary indication was for a pass and sure enough, the pass letter came along in the post ten days later on the 22nd November so I logged into the OFCOM portal again and let it choose a callsign for me, this time 2E0EOA (a mouthful on 'phone, even worse in Morse, ..---  .  -----  .  ---  .-)  Lesson learned, the next callsign will get some thought put into it.  By this time confidence had set in and I began studying for the full licence, again with the RSGB book, Ad...

Really? You're still reading? Wow, thank you, we're almost up to date and at the bit where the exams started. So, David, G0VIE, replied, patiently answered some questions about the course and suggested I come along to meet him at the club where we could discuss the course and exam a little more. David was most helpful and agreed to train me on Sundays, once a fortnight to fit in with my childcare needs, the course, if you've ever considered getting licensed, do it, it's fun and at foundation level, it's a good grounding in the basics of operating, some electronics and electrical theory and a little practical.  Morse appreciation with Jill was also plenty of fun, it sounds a little daunting and, honestly, I was nervous, I have never been able to get Morse into my head so while there's no Morse requirement any more, the 'appreciation' part of the course felt like a hurdle (I'm determined to learn and become proficient, it feels like a r...

So, what's all this got to do with M0UAW and why is an M0 'newly licensed? We're getting there, I promise... I'd been mulling the idea of becoming a licensed amateur for years, ever since the (pre legalisation) heyday of CB, a few of my friends were/are G7s and I could whistle a pitch perfect 1750Hz, into the legal days then on and off for the next three decades. Finally, in 2016, I visited the Telford rally (did I mention I liked and had been attending rallies for years?) at Ingenuity and got chatting to the young bloke on the RSGB stand (I was already a GQRP member) who kindly sold me a copy of the Foundation Now book. The book, well I read it, then put it away, almost convinced I was missing something, it was too easy! A few months passed by and then I found the book again, read it and decided, no, it really wasn't more complex than that so I started to try and find a club who would allow me to take the exam. Herein we discover one of the reasons wh...

Still here?  Good. Read on. Latterly (OK, 17 years ago) I moved away from repair for money but still like to tinker for fun, I take on repairs of radio gear, for preference things that other people have declared unrepairable, it's brought me all kinds of radios, some CB sets, some Ham sets and a few PMR or commercial devices.  I worked out the EPROM in some wonderful Key Communications 50 Watt radios that had been customised for data use and figured out how to get them on 2M where they performed beautifully with minimal adjustment. The EPROM in the Storno CQM6334 and CQM 6114 radios similarly fell to my interests and sat squarely in the 4M and 2M bands but I never really did much after I'd worked them out, it was the fun of the hack that got me, the undocumented and unknown interested me. All of this, I did for my own interest and I didn't bother to publish any of it, the journey was the fun for me, the end result was boring, I realise now that ther...

Hi, welcome, how on earth did you find me? I suppose I should introduce myself, I'm Clint, I live in the North West of England, IO83tj and I'm a newly licensed radio amateur (Yeah, that's right, newly licensed and  an M0 not an M6 or a 2E. Read on)... I have been tinkering with radio and electronics since I was a small boy, I can blame my interest on my Grandfather, Harry, who was one of those people who knew about everything, was continually curious and passed on that spark to me.  So, one of my first electronics projects at around the age of 11 was a digital die, based on the venerable 555 timer and a 4017 CMOS decade counter.  I saved for a few weeks and bought all the parts from the local electronics shop (there was a choice of three in my home town, amazing!) yet, for all my reading and 'knowledge' I hadn't realised I needed to break the tracks on the Vero board so of course, it didn't work.  But, I had built it, and I was proud, eve...